An ugly road rage incident occurred recently when a driver in the outside lane of a motorway became annoyed at being ‘tailgated’ by a frustrated driver behind him. The driver in front moved left to let the irritated driver through – coinciding with the ‘tailgating’ driver swooping over to undertake on the left. An angry exchange of gesticulations progressed to both drivers pulling into a side-bay, where it got seriously physical. Assault charges will follow.
Murray Smith
It made me wonder about the inner world of both drivers involved and the emotional deficit that allowed such a relatively trivial incident to escalate. Surely with a little humility they could have backed down and carried on with their day?
It’s often mentioned that ‘pride’ has a big “i” sitting at the centre. The big “i” is a critical problem that spells the undoing of so many people – if left unchecked. The need to be ‘top-dog’, self-interest, self-promotion, self-centredness and lots of other elevated ‘self-isms’ contribute to pride becoming entrenched in a person’s life.
I’m not talking about the legitimate sense of ‘self-respect’ we refer to as taking ‘pride’ in managing and doing things well in life. Tempered with humility, that’s entirely appropriate. But to become absorbed with our own importance and prowess we forget two important things – firstly, our human powers and abilities are limited and secondly, no matter how much ability we feel we may have and what we might accomplish, it has all been ‘given’ to us by the only true source of enabling (God). To claim credit unto ourselves without acknowledging Him is a slippery slope. Actually, the essence of pride is charting our own course independently of God, doing life our own way believing we are self-sufficient.
A record of someone whose pride doomed him, features in the Book of Esther from the Bible. Haman was an ambitious official in the Persian King Xerxes’ court (460 BC). He craved people’s praise and honour, demanding that all should bow to him.
A Jewish man named Mordecai enraged Haman by persistently refusing to comply. Haman’s hatred resulted in him convincing the King to issue a decree to kill all Jews in the Persian empire – thus exterminating Mordecai.
Book of Esther
Eagerly anticipating Mordecai’s pending death, Haman had huge gallows built. Queen Esther (of Jewish identity, unknown to the King), intervened and foiled the plot. She hosted a banquet for the King and Haman. There, she disclosed the plan which Haman had coerced the King into, making a plea for her people to be spared. Furious with Haman for tricking him into signing the decree, the King stormed out of the room – he returned to find Haman throwing himself upon the Queen begging for mercy. The King saw Haman’s action as forcing himself on the Queen – Haman’s prideful ambition resulted in him being hanged on the gallows he had had built for Mordecai.
Here’s wisdom to close with, from the Bible… “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.” (Proverbs 16:18-19).
“Clothe yourselves, with humility toward one another, for God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”1 Peter 5:5
